How many of you HAMBER'S are in rockabilly bands?

I've got a boss katana 50 that I use everywhere I can, it's small and light!! But I use a peavey XL half stack where I can't use the boss, good thing I have Ashley to help me

 

And yeah that upright takes up some real estate! Ya gotta have the proper band wagon lol

 

A number of years ago, I was lucky enough to be associated with my good neighbor Bill Whelan, ( The bass player ), our friend Ksin, ( the drummer ) and that is me ( Dennis ) on lead guitar.

Bill had a rehearsal studio on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle known as " JAM BOX ", there were about 40 separate rooms in that building, and one of the tenants was Ksin, the drummer. Bill and I and Ksin would get together and just jam,, total free form, nothing planned, and we would always have a blast. We were fortunate that we always recorded what ever we played.

Unfortunately a year after these photos were taken, Ksin passed away at the age of 45, truly a tragic loss of a great spontaneous talented drummer and a good friend !

Bill had put together this little video of when he was on vacation in Las Palmas Mexico, and he used a little jam we did and he put it to this video. Its not rockabilly but more like a jazz fusion funky little jam that I still enjoy listening to, I hope all do as well.

Sincerely,
Dennis.

 

When you play a upright bass it influences what kind of car you drive. At one time I had three uprights they filled my basement

 

I just let mine stick out the window in the shoebox, lol. It's quite a trick getting one in there. But for traveling shows, 2 basses, definitely. A truck or wagon/big suv is pretty much the only option for 2 full size basses.

 

We played Heavyrebel a couple times,and Elvisfest. We go by the name The F'n A-holes,drove all the way from south Bama .Had some good times there,and a good car show also!

 

Just picked up this bad lad....

 

Very cool! (I hope that isn’t the upholstery in your shoebox)

 

Lmfao, no, i don't have very good taste, but a wee bit better than that...

 

It’s kind of growing on me. A few peace signs here and there and it Might look good in my wagon.

 

Little bit of a shitty cell video

 

Here's one of my group of drunks.... Lol. We're an oldtime act, so if you'd have gone to a barn dance in the 1800's, that's the kind of stuff we play. Which is hilarious because all these 200 year old songs are about sex, getting drunk, or murdering someone. We also do a traditional celtic full show every st pats, which is my birthday as well, so I'm usually quite a shit show that day.

 

Bravo!! I don't know how to spell a whistling sound lol... that's awesome brother!

 

I love it! I have some early 78s that I pull out on occasion. Magical time in the history of music.

 

Your right about songs from that period. Most of these songs were based on true local stories.
“Freeda Bolt”
A song about a tragic murder in Southern Va. She was a relative of my sister in-law’s husband. Recorded by the Floyd County Ramblers in the 30s and later by the Carter Family. I tried to buy an original 78 online but it was over my budget.

She was murdered by a local man that she had snuck out on a date with. One of the clues that caught him was the after market horn he had installed on his car. Family remembers hearing it on the night she went missing.

 

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Man Wray, my banjo player and I are doing a duet album of murder ballads this spring. I'll think about throwing that one in the list for ya. That's incredible that you have actual history to go with it.

Here's a music video for yall too, first time seen outside my studio, album isn't done yet. Almost, then we'll have some vinyls out and this will drop.

 

WOW, Well done!

 

Yeah, that's incredible for sure wray. We added this to the list to record... Amazing you have family ties to it. We'll send out a dedication to your family on the record if you pm me family name and stuff, if not, no worries.

One of the things that makes our band weird is our banjo player and band leader is a music historian, so we talk between some songs and you get a history lesson/Comedy routine along with the music... Lol.

 

PM sent.

 

@210superair
So cool to see that ancient microphone that you scored ! They truly were works of art.
I scored this very cool ( ASTATIC ) JT-30 a while back. When taken off of the stand, they were the preferred microphone, to use for harmonica players, because the semi egg shape of the body, fit in the hand of the player so nicely. Plus its got that cool, space age, science fiction look to it as well.

 

Record is done, dropping hopefully in July? August? Takes quite a while to press vinyl evidently. Gonna print up some new sweatshirts and stickers and junk too. When the record is done I'll find a way to share a track or two on here if anyone wants to hear it... Came out great!

 

My old band that I drummed with from 96-2011 and still sit in when needed. Influenced by Irish punk and rockabilly with lots and lots of train beats but not here, we released this back in 05. It’s a Woody Guthrie tune we heard Dave Alvin do and so we had to do it too.


Jammin with Wayne Hancock in our mandolins players living room about 15 years ago.



A few years later hangin with Wayne

 

My buddy DK I grew up with was Wayne the trains road manager for a while. I was with um all when we were, ah-hem.... 'Politely' asked to leave Weber's hotel in Ann Arbor. I vaguely remember barfing into a trash can while Wayne talked to the hotel manager.... Lol.

 

You might laugh, but I have a way to fit my upright into the passenger seat of a Porsche 911. I studied with a teacher in Palo Alto, CA and he took a video of me taking the bass out and putting it back in...surprisingly, there's a lot of room in the front seat of a p-car, and I angle the neck towards the driver's side rear "insurance seat" with the bridge facing the door side. So the passenger seat is reclined all the way back, bass is on it's side and pointing diagonally with the headstock scroll into the corner. Believe it or not, I could also roll all windows up and lock the car with the bass inside.

I have moved a lot of tools in that p-car as well, anvils, heavy motors, blacksmithing tools, a rivet forge, champion crank blower, etc...and a p-car gets you there quick, gets up to speed and passes ignoramuses with ease and stops quick. The one thing it's missing is a cup holder...not a whole lot of conveniences in a p-car...mine has a subwoofer behind the seat! Stereo control on the wheel...I do have a couple speeding tickets, never with the bass though...

 

Lol, you made me think about the early 90’s…I used to fit a 6 piece drum kit into a 62 Morris Mini Cooper, the front passenger seat had to be removed but that was easy.

 

Man, snapped this on my way to gig the other day. The ol girl fits all 3 of my instruments like a glove, lol. One guitar, one dobro, one banjer...

 

Got the test pressings of the new record, came out awesome. They're pressing up final copies as we speak.

Got some northern MI gigs this weekend, I'll try and have somebody snap a few pics or a vid of us jamming....

 

High five too all who make the live sounds fun. I enjoy it a lot live.
Rockabilly,DooWop,rock n roll ;mostly before 1964 styling.
Ya,we had a neighborhood band when I was a teen,We called it "The Sand Dunes"
I could tune cars well,not so much play anything,so my job was a tambourine*/mostly I was good for hauling a lot of stuff*in my stationwagon.

 

Holy cow is that an acetate? I did a couple in College, indirectly through the electronic music teacher who was a sound engineer as his straight gig...ironically I'm not a big electronic music guy, I'm an acoustic type fella...just so happened I took that class to learn how to patch the mini-moog...

 

A few pics. Unfortunately all the pics came from the crowd side so you can't tell, but we jammed the street corner with people and the cops actually showed up because we had so many there, which was cool, lol. The cop was a good dude tho and let us keep raging and told me he enjoyed watching too... There's video of us out there, everyone had their phones out, but we've yet to locate vids.